Monthly Archives: January 2016

I have changed a lot from the past year, academically and what I am interested in. So, this letter shall take a bit of a different turn from my last one. Instead of writing about my favourite things and if there is any odd facts about me (since I’ve already written a few things about them), I’m going to write about some different things. Hopefully you find out a bit more about me than you already know.

Right, so my dad and my stepmom sold our house in Brighton East last year, so we could live closer to school. So we found a house (which is a very nice home) and then we heard the news. We bought a family beach house in Chelsea! So, for most of the holidays, we were helping making some new changes, like how the walls were a light green colour. Also, my mum’s partner bought a new house so we were helping him get his house ready. But at Chelsea, we have a balcony that looks over the sea, and at sunset, it’s beautiful. But at times the sun is right in your eyes, so that’s a bit annoying, but it’s worth it. Having a balcony looking over the beach also means that the beach is nearby, and it’s very close for us. We just have to walk a few metres from the back of our house and then you’re on the beach! It’s really handy in summer when we want to go for a swim.

Holidays:

There were 5 top things that happened on the holidays that were a big standout for me,

Chelsea

Bright (mum’s side family vacation)

Step sister’s 21st

Earth watch expedition(microbats)

Cats (the musical)

I’ve already talked about Chelsea, so let’s talk about Bright. I went with my mum’s full side of the family (aunts, uncles, cousins and grandma) to this house we go every year (which has the best swimming pool) and hang out there. It was really hot up there in the summer so we were always in the pool or a nearby lake. At the lake we went on a rope swing that you would let go of and splash into the water. W also jumped of a cliff into the water which as super fun (and safe). We also went into town, which was cool. Everyone went berry picking for blueberry’s and in the end we had over a kilo! There was a lot of blueberry’s, but some were really high up in the trees, so we either left them or if they were really good, we asked an adult. It was really fun, as fun as when my cousins, uncles, brother and I went four-wheel driving into the forest and the mountains. The view was amazing from the top of the mountains, trees so high you couldn’t see the ground. And the cars on the road looked really small, I wish I had my camera!

Early in the holidays, we went to see one of the most famous, most amazing play of all time. Cats. It’s a musical about a tribe of singing cats (who can talk and walk on two feet)and they making the choice of who goes up to the Heaviside lair, a place where you can go and be reborn. Some famous cats are Rum Tug Tugger, Grizabella (the glamor cat), Macavity and Old Deuteronomy. The most famous song in Cats is Memory, which is sung by Grizabellla. It was a fantastic show and my step sister and my sister were mouthing the words along with me in the showJ. The set looked amazing, even though it was meant to look like an abandoned dumpster. And 2 times the cats came running down the aisles, some of them were crawling through them, some stoped and talked to you (if you were one of the lucky few). It was really cool and I wish I could see it again.

Christmas is a great time of year. So when you get something that you didn’t expect but blows your mind at how cool it is, you can’t wait to do it. Imagine if you got to see a creature in real life that some people didn’t believe existed? Well I did. Their call micro Bats and their tiny! Some live in the Botanical Gardens and that’s where the Earthwatch expedition was. My step sister and I got there with our sleeping gear (since we were staying overnight) and met our other 6 people in our group. There was two girls who were around the same age as me as the others were adults. We started the day by meeting the Earthwatch scientist’s and started setting up harmless traps to trap the microbats. They looked like a big harp on four legs with a bag underneath it to catch the microbats. You had to be really carful unwrapping the wire and stretching it because you don’t want them to break. We had eight traps to build but they were more confusing and harder to build than they seem. It took a long time but we did it.

We went back to where we were sleeping (staff hall) and we watched a presentation on microbats. Som things I learnt wa that the most common microbat in the Botanical Ga(the ghost bat) eats frogs and lizards. There are 15 species of microbats in Melbourne and 58 species in Australia! Also a microbat can eat 600 mosquitoes in a hour! There was more facts but I won’t tell any more.

Wattles Ghoul (most unattractive species)

There was a timetable of when we went to go and see if their was any of the bats caught. At 11.00 there was 2 bats. At 1.00 there was 8 bats. At 3.00 there was none. By that time the rest of the microbats must of used ecolocation and they wouldn’t go near them again. You didn’t have to come every time we went out, but everyone did. Once we got the bats out of the bags and put them into temporatly material bags (everyone got to hold one since there was 10 bats and 8 humans) we went back and saw what gender they were, how old, their forelenght, their species and then we would tagged them and let them free. Most of them were females, all were mostly young and all were Wattles Ghoul Microbats.

The scientists were the only ones who could hold them, but we could touch them. Once all of that was done we were allowed to free them.

We would open the bags and unravel them till the bat shows and then fly’s of. I was the first to do it and I was a bit scared but it was fine. My second shot I was better and the little guy stayed in my hand for a few seconds then flew off.

One of the adults there ha a microbat who wouldn’t get of his hand! Well, it wasn’t like that for everyone because the first bat I got, was making a sharp buzz noise which means that he was really angry. But the day was a great day and I have so much fun!

My step sisters 21st birthday was celebrated with our family friends and some of the family. We had fish and chips in the living room where you could see the view in the glass window. It was too cold to have them on the beach but once cake was over, all the kids/teens went onto the beach. My brother (in freezing cold weather) started sprinting into the water. It was warmer in the water than outside but when he came out, he was shivering! No one else went for a swim because the weather was really bad. So most of us just talked on the beach, enjoying the beach air. But there was a time where we were kicking this ball around like a soccer ball. We got called inside and walked back to our house and talked for a while there. Then Caity opened up her presents and we all went back to our homes.

I think I have changed a bit from last year because my goals are different. I wanted to be a chemist when I grew up, but now I don’t know. I like mixing things, but every kid likes to do that. So when I dropped that decision, for a bit of a long time I wanted to be an author. I love reading and writing, and creating a whole different world with different characters would be fun but I would like the feeling of going somewhere to work, not just staying home. So now I don’t really know what I want to be when I grow older, but I’ll figure it out later because I should just focus on being a kid. I don’t read that much anymore, which I used to do almost every day. But if I find a really good book, I might get back into the habit of reading a lot again. Since some of my close friends left the school, I go on social media way more than I used to. I mostly use text messages and call them but I also use social media like Instagram more. The last thing that is different about me is I’m starting to think about the future more. Not when I’m 30 or anything, but when I get to be an adult, or when I turn 16 (the year when you can start your “L’s” in the driving lessons). I’m still having fun as a kid and I’m not letting that opportunity slide, but I just wonder what it’ll be like when I get my first job, or first pay check ;)! Anyway, these things might seem little but put them together, slowly I’m getting different priorities and before you know it, I might have a completely different idea too what I wanted to be/do when I grew up. But you ever know, I might want to be a chemist again at some stage, who knows? But change isn’t a bad thing, it’s just different. I even like different music now, I love the Imagine Dragons and The Script, but there are exceptions to some new songs like Here.

So that’s a bit of things about my holiday and what’s changed about me.

Hello everyone and welcome to 2016! Hope where ever you are you’re having fun and enjoying this year as much as you can. My teacher this year is called Antony, but we call him Ant. Like always, a new class full of different people, this shall be fun! I’m still posting things like my 100wc and projects on here so please still comment!